I was driving on the freeway and I changed lanes and noticed that when my blinker was on, my spedometer would go crazy. Then my spedo and tach and volts all went to lowest position. 0mph 0rpm and 9volts(9 is the lowest on the meter in dash) Also the GEN light came on. As I drove down the freeway I got to a stop light and the jeep allmost died. I got to another stop light and the jeep wouldnt get any speed when I tried to get going. I nursed it off the road and let it idle for a minute while I looked for some tools to pull the battery cable. I didnt have any tools so I just shut it off. It would not start after that and acted like a dead battery. Its a 96 jeep cherokee, 4.0 auto 4wd. Is this the altinator or could this be something else?
thanks

 

1. Clean battery terminals and battery posts until they are SHINY.

2. Refresh your engine grounds. Very important and often overlooked

3. LOAD TEST your battery and test your charging system. A parts store can do this for you or you can do it yourself with a meter at the battery. Should have approx. 14 volts, give or take.
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Grounds can be the root cause of many electrical gremlins. Refreshing grounds is NEVER a bad idea!

You can't just check or look at these grounds. You must remove, scrape, clean until shiny the cable/wire ends and whatever they bolt to. The one on the back corner of the head, and where it attaches to the firewall. Scrape the paint from the firewall. Best to replace that woven cable with a #4 or #2 gauge cable. You can attach the one end to the intake manifold if you would like.

Next go over to the engine dipstick tube stud. Remove the nut and clean the wire ends and scrape the block until shiny at the stud. Reattach tightly.

If you are so inclined, add at least a #6 cable from the negative terminal of your battery to one of the bolts on your radiator support. Scrape the paint off first.